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Moto3: Bulega tops opening day as McPhee fast in the wet

Published:
21 October 2016

Team Sky VR46 KTM rookie Nicolo Bulega has topped the opening day of Moto3 action at Phillip Island in wet conditions, setting the fastest time of the morning in free practice one to end the day fastest overall from Niccolo Antonelli and Aron Canet.

But with conditions getting worse for the afternoon’s second outing, it was Czech Grand Prix winner John McPhee who took the top spot in the tricky second session. No one improved their times in the second half of the day, and the Scotsman finished the day in 12th overall.

The Saxoprint Peugeot rider was keen to see dry conditions for the weekend’s action, looking forward to showing his pace in the dry at a track that he enjoys, but with similar conditions forecast for tomorrow’s qualifying he could well be in position for a strong qualifying to aid that.

And with horrible conditions descending upon Phillip Island, none of the series front-runners were willing to take too many risks after receiving warnings early in the day as both Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini walked away from low-speed crashes.